sgregg003

I am considering having a ridge vent installed with my new roof. But one side of my shingle roof drops down to a flat roof over a porch. Of the roofers that I have spoken with since the flat roof is flashed up the fascia board there is no way to vent this. Does anyone know of a way that I can add fresh air venting(for the ridge vent) to this side of the house? If not will one side of the house with fresh air intake do any good without the other side providing fresh air intake? Thanks Scott G.

I have a home that was built in the late 60's and we had a major sewer backup that had backed up through our original basement toilet. When the contractor came in to clean up the mess they had to remove the toilet. I am finally to the point that I need to re-install the toilet but I have ran into a roadblock. Their is a 4 inch cast-iron pipe sticking slightly up out of the concrete floor with a steel ring four threaded holes between 1/4 and 1/2 inch outside the perimeter of the pipe (none of them would align with the toilet to attach it to the floor). I scraped the joint between the perimeter of the pipe and the ring that has the four holes in it. It appears that this may have been installed with okum and lead. Again when the cleanup contractor came in and took out the toilet they pretty much threw everything away so I have no idea what attached to this ring for the toilet bolts to attach to. I have asked a few plumbers and they didnt know of any other way to fix this other than to tear out the floor and install a new connection to the waste pipe. I tried a few of the flanges from the stores and nothing matches up, I also thought about placing one of those drop in flanges, but when I do that I dont know how I would attach it to the floor due to the steel ring with the okum and lead. Any help would be greatly appreciated Thanks Scott G.

My wife recently purchased some new lights to mount on the outside of our home on either side of the front entry door. When I removed the old fixture and the mounting bracket I found that the mounting bracket was just screwed into the old siding, and not connected to an electrical junction box. It appears that whoever installed the previous fixtures just drilled a hole in the old siding and ran the wire through. I have spoken with a few a my neighbors who have encountered a similar situation. Granted my house was built in 1968, but if I remember the code correctly any electrical junction had to take place in a electrical box. Currently my house has a layer of vinyl siding, followed by a later of insulation, and then a layer of old wood siding, after that I am not sure if there is plywood or, if the old wood siding is just nailed into the framing. I am trying to find the best way to install the two electrial junction boxes for these fixtures. Should the new boxes be mounted flush with the old wood siding, or if there is plywood behind it is that where the box would need to go, any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Scott G.

I have a couple questions, when trying to fix issue #1, I created a new one. 1). In my kitchen I have a two sink setup, one sink has a garbage disposal. When the garbage disposal is ran the water backs up into my other sink before finally draining out. When the disposer is not in use the sink drains fine. The setup below the sink is a center outlet drain going through a diverter "T" into the pipe leading to the trap. I took this apart this evening and replaced the diverter "T", and made sure the pipes were level, but still the same issue. Any ideas to stop this would be greatly appreciated. 2). When trying to repair the above issue , all these parts are chrome plated brass 1 1/2 inch. I was trying to loosen the coupling on the waste arm that goes toward the wall, but instead of the coupling coming loose the whole piece came out. The coupling from the waste arm went into a piece that was threaded on one end, and reduced in diameter at the other other end to fit into another pipe coming from the wall(no coupling or anything). When I ran the disposer to test it, it leaked at the point where the reduced end went into the pipe coming from the wall. Where the pipe slides inside the one coming from the wall there are a couple drops of a hard gray substance in a couple places, which I have no idea what it is, but may have been some kind of sealant maybe? Any idea what I can do to stop this leak, and what I would call the pipe that slide inside the other pipe in the wall(I think it may need to be replaced). Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks S. Gregg

I have a 41 year old home, there used to be a toilet and sink in the basement, but due to a sewer backup it was never put back into service. I have the sewer backup issue resolved and now want to put the bathroom back together. There is currently a 4 inch pipe coming up out of the floor, and embedded in the concrete is a flange(not a floor flange---no opening for bolts to hold down toilet), with several holes in it, but with limited depth due to being embedded in the concrete. Any recommendations on how to install the new toilet would be greatly appreciated. Is the flange thats embedded in the concrete useful in any way? Thanks S. Gregg

Hello, I recently had a sewer backup in my basement that also flooded one of my bathrooms, I have gutted the bathroom, but am looking for suggestions on removing the old linoleum tile and the adhesive, any advise on removing these would be greatly appreciated, by the way this is on top of concrete. Thanks in advance Scott G.

I own a 40year ranch home with and attached porch on the rear of the house. During a heavy or long steady rain the ledger board on the house begins to leak around the chimney on the porch side but not inside the house. Before this problem began to show itself the chimney had been tuckpointed, and the flat roof on the porch had been replaced. Recently I placed a large sheet of plastic over the chimney, and after some good rains the leak was still present, so I eliminated the chimney as the culprit. I am leaning toward a problem in the roof , but really don't know where to start since I don't see any sign of leaking on the interior of the house or the attic. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Scott G.

I recently purchased a 40 year old home, and both bathrooms are vented into the attic. Unfortunately these bathrooms are back to back, with the stack going right up through the middle of them. Both vents will be fed by 4 inch pipe, is there any type of code that states what kind of clearance the bath vents need in relation to other vent that go through the roof? In the attic they are roughly about 3.5 to 4 feet apart from each other, but with the stack in the middle. Thanks Scott G.